What You Can Do

Color coding your cutting boards can help prevent cross-contamination in your kitchen.

We like this colored set of cutting boards. The red one is always used to cut meats, the green one for vegetables, the white one for cheeses, the brown one is reserved for breads and desserts and so on. As a bonus, the bamboo cutting board holder makes both a nice serving tray with an insert for any colored board and a storage compartment for all of the other cutting boards. Sometimes I get lazy and use different sections of the same board to make the entire dinner – (one board seems like enough to wash after cooking – right?) but never with the red one. The red board is always reserved just for raw meats and then washed and dried immediately after use – just to be safe! Plastic boards do get scored easily by sharp knives and need to be tossed and replaced when worn.

Wooden cutting boards are preferred by many because they are easiest on your knives, biodegradable and better at resisting the formation of mold. These things are true whether your board is old or new, but you should season it with mineral oil once in awhile after cleaning. Also, you should never soak your wooden cutting board or wash it in the dishwasher. If you prefer wooden boards, you can still use a color-coded system. Use painters tape to mark off the end of your cutting board and then paint with acrylic paint a different color for each type of food on one end of the different boards. Paint the ends of the boards only, not any surface which will ever come in contact with food.

Additional Info

For more information on keeping a safe kitchen, see our post on kitchen safety tips.

To find out the shelf life of your favorite vegetables check our fresh vegetable menu and for fruits check our fresh fruit menu.

The set of cutting boards shown above is available here online.